There isn't one media specialists that doesn't find the job of weeding their selection daunting. I recently found an article on weeding that has a quick and easy way to weed your collection.

Dr. Gail Dickison wrote in Library Media Connection,April/May2005, "Weeding is a professional responsibility. It was what librarians in all types of libraries do." Dr. Dickinson suggest taking fifteen minute every week and try one shelf a wekk approach. The three steps she suggests are:

Step One: Start with one shelf and pull out the books on that shelf and just do a visual check. Using a quick glance, are there any books that look as if they need to be weeded?

Step Two: Once you have a pile of suspect books, apply the rules of deselection and make the decision to toss or keep.

Step Three: Take the books you have chosen to pull from the collection to a workstation. At this point, you complete the steps to remove a book from your collection and the author suggests tossing the book in the trashcan.

Dr. Dickinson suggest this method of weeding should take about fifteen minutes and over time will become a quick and efficient method of weeding. By keeping track of what you have weeded, eventually you will make it around your library. "Weeding, when viewed as a normal part of library center routine, does not involve shirt sleeves, hot summer days, or brown paper bags surrepitiously stored in the trunk of the library media specialist's car. Plan to start your 15 Minutes-To-A-Better-Collection exercise routine today."

Time management in any educational setting is crucial to success. This is a great solution to a daunting task that must be done to any collection. By taking this simple approach to weeding and making it a part of your weekly routine, it will not become an overwhelming task and it will also help you become more familiar with your collection, one shelf at a time.